Published 4:00 am, Friday, February 8, 2002

San Jose police are asking for the public's assistance in finding a 36- year-old man they say bilked hundreds of people nationwide out of more than $1. 3 million for bogus technology and computer classes. The appeal is the latest step in a yearlong investigation by the department's High Technology Crimes Unit, said San Jose Police Sgt. Steve Dixon.

Dixon said investigators had been contacted in February 2001 by people who reported that they had ordered computer equipment on the auction site EBay from a San Jose company called ITPrep.

Det. Joe Wicker contacted the owner of ITPrep, Faroukh Ayazi, at his Monroe Street office and was assured that the goods were on back order and that all customers would receive their orders or a refund, Dixon said.

Instead, the complaints kept coming in, and Wicker returned to the Monroe Street office about two weeks later, but found Ayazi and all his equipment gone, Dixon said.

Further investigation showed that two of the Cupertino satellite offices listed on the ITPrep Web site were actually different, unrelated businesses, Dixon said, and Wicker soon learned that the company's claimed locations in other states also were bogus.

In addition, Wicker found out that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service was investigating ITPrep for allegedly accepting checks and credit card numbers for computer classes it never delivered, Dixon said.

All told, the losses to some 700 victims are estimated to be $1.3 million, Dixon said.

Since May, investigators have been seeking Ayazi on a $5 million arrest warrant issued through Santa Clara County, Dixon said. The warrant charges Ayazi, whose Web site has since gone offline, with grand theft and theft by fraud, he said.

Wicker can be reached at (408) 277-3214, or anonymously at (408) 947-STOP.